Cloud Atlas (2012)

Cloud Atlas Synopsis

From acclaimed filmmakers Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski comes the powerful and inspiring epic Cloud Atlas, based on the best-selling novel by David Mitchell.

Drama, mystery, action and enduring love thread through a single story that unfolds in multiple timelines over the span of 500 years. Characters meet and reunite from one life to the next. Born and reborn.

As the consequences of their actions and choices impact one another through the past, the present and the distant future, one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and a single act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.

The world's greatest filmmakers tell their stories from the very first frame in their movies to the very last. Need proof? Just watch the amazing supercut below, and you'll notice just how many brilliant films have beginnings and endings that work in stunning tandem.

CBS Broadcasting has released Dexter: the Seventh Season on to Blu-ray and DVD so that fans can relive Season 7’s most heightened moments. Additionally, Warner Home Video has put together a release for Cloud Atlas. Read on to learn about some of April 30th's best releases, and maybe even a few that may have slipped under your radar.

Cloud Atlas has been forgotten by nearly everyone at this point, including Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, which has dumped its release all the way into May. This is a shame, because the film is a visual treat, an intertwining of great acting performances and vivid storylines. If you’ve been waiting and waiting to add the Wachowski’s flick to your collection, the film will hit Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download on May 14.

With its globe trotting and time jumping plotlines that speak of reincarnation, love and the fight against tyranny, perhaps Cloud Atlas would have been better served as trilogy. (Hey, it's working for The Hobbit.) At least, that's what a clever trailer from Justin Fields suggests.

The version of Cloud Atlas that debuted in Beijing last night clocked in at 130 minutes, meaning roughly forty minutes had been cut from the version that has played in theaters worldwide. Basically, about ¼ of the film has been completely excised. Worse yet, the film's directors (Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski, and Tom Tykwer) were reportedly not involved with this edit.

We've all had a few hours now to process this year's Oscar nominations, to scream to the heavens demanding justice for Ben Affleck or running through the forest with fireworks to celebrate Beasts of the Southern Wild. So now that the dust has settled, what are the snubs that are still burning us up? Who are we going to miss the most on Oscar night?

Many consider 1982 to be one of the greatest years in movie history. With titles like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Blade Runner, The Thing, Poltergeist, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and many other influential, revolutionary, unforgettable movies, it’s a year that will always be remembered as a landmark in pop culture history. And now 30 years later we have a year that could very well end up being remembered the same way.

2012 was a really, really hard year to sum up in list form, and a top 20 would really be more appropriate to reflect the astonishing variety of blockbusters, out-of-nowhere successes and totally tiny arthouse stuff that grabbed me this year. A lot of these movies snuck up on me, only revealing their brilliance long after I'd written a review or thought I'd forgotten about it. Plenty of those not on this list did the opposite, making an amazing first impression and fading so quickly

Personally I think it's way too early for anyone to be publishing their 10 best or 10 worst films of the year list-- you never know what gems you might be able to catch up with before year's end, and with Playing for Keeps opening this weekend, do you honestly think you've already endured the year's worst?

Video games took center stage in theaters this weekend as a movie chock full of classic characters dominated the number one spot. Wreck-It Ralph was the easy champion with almost $50 million. While that was a nice boost for the box office after a sluggish October, it might not have been the debut the movie's producers had hoped for.

This week there's so, so much going on that has absolutely nothing to do with the Oscar race, and it seems almost crazy to bring it up. There's the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, of course, which I'm witnessing in my own small way here in Brooklyn (though with power and running water and no damage to my friends or home, I'm exceptionally lucky)

Beyond the adventures of the book's heroes, the filmmakers invented new character arcs by giving their cast multiple roles over the film's extensive timelines. In doing so, they not only bolstered Mitchell's theme of reincarnation, but also created character arcs that transcend lifetimes. Below, we break down how each of these characters rise and fall in their karmic worth over the course of Cloud Atlas. As you might guess, this is entirely constructed of spoilers.

For those of you who saw Cloud Atlas this weekend, it was likely your first introduction to Doona Bae, the Korean actress making her English-language debut as the reluctant revolutionary clone Sonmi-451 (and, like all of the film's actors, a few other roles as well). Bae had standout performances in the Korean film The Host and the Japanese film Air Doll

When we really love a movie around here, we do our best to tell you about it, not because we think our opinions are so important, but because you always want to get the word out about something that's great. And we were trying extra-hard last week with Cloud Altas, the massive new movie from the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer that Sean, Katey and Eric all really liked

Really pretty pictures and the promise of Tom Hanks outdoing himself by snagging all five Oscar nominations for best actor for parts played in a single movie were not enough to draw audiences out for Cloud Atlas. The movie reportedly cost over $100 million to produce but only took in $9 million for an embarrassing third place debut.

Warner Bros. can probably be proud of being on top of the box office this weekend, but it's probably not exactly the setup they were hoping for. Argo will take over the #1 spot at the box office for the first time this weekend, making $3.9 million and projected for around $12 million for the weekend

This week we looked to Cloud Atlas, Wreck-It Ralph and The Man With the Iron Fist for inspiration, and so offer a selection of big idea sci-fi/fantasy, family-friendly adventures, and some very violent action flicks.

Most sane directors in Hollywood took one look at David Mitchell's sprawling, densely layered novel Cloud Atlas and said "this is unfilmable." Luckily for all of us, Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer are at least a little bit insane, and decided not just to translate Mitchell's novel to the screen

This week on Operation Kino, we're yarning to the babbits, yay, and tellin' 'em the true-true, as we review the new film from Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer, Cloud Atlas. After that extra-long review segment we get into the fact that everyone has praised the editing of Cloud Atlas, but… wait? What's editing?

To pick on Sturgess's transformation specifically, as well as the alteration of other actors (Hugo Weaving, James D'Arcy, Keith David) to appear more Asian, is to miss the purpose of Cloud Atlas, a movie devoted to the idea that these lines between races, genders and generations are as immaterial as, well, clouds

During a recent press day for Cloud Atlas I had the amazing opportunity to sit down with the exceedingly talented performer to talk not only about his latest movie, but also the path of his career and the choices he has made. Check out the interview below, in which Weaving discusses his appearance-motivated performances, working with director Tom Tykwer in conjunction with the Wachowskis, and the film’s “yellowface” controversy.

We've been excited about Cloud Atlas for quite a while over here, with both Sean and I flipping for it at the Toronto Film Festival and both of us evangelizing to anyone who would listen that it's awesome, "Just give it a shot!" But no matter how many times we try to shake people and tell them about it's greatness, it's a fact that Cloud Atlas is a tricky movie to explain

Superhero movies remain the spot where the "box office success + critical raves = Oscars" formula falls apart. The Academy is still feeling some of the backlash from their snub of The Dark Knight in 2008, which many believe led them to open up the Best Picture category to 10 nominees (now a sliding scale of 5-10, depending on how many votes they get) and probably helped Inception get a nod two years later

A lot going on this week. And by “a lot” I mean mostly a bunch of terrible movies with one Wachowski-led exception. We’ve got our head in the clouds, high school all-nighters, killer waves and silents hills

Thought a lot of the most effective trailers and TV spots for Cloud Atlas have used the excellent M83 song "Outro," the film's original score by Johnny Kilmek, Reinhold Heil and co-director Tom Tykwer is really fantastic, with the huge variety of themes and tones you might expect for a movie this enormous and wide-ranging

What ought to be the most ambitious, baffling, possibly infuriating movie of the fall is moving faster and faster toward us, with Cloud Atlas now very close to its October 26 release date. The film from the newly dubbed "Wachowski Starship" (a.k.a. Andy and Lana Wachowski, the siblings behind The Matrix) and Tom Tykwer debuted at the Toronto Film Festival last month

The best reveal, for me, from that clip is the knowledge that Cloud Atlas novelist David Mitchell wrote all of his narratives from start to finish, then spent only 20 minutes chopping them in half and splicing them together to make the symbolic quilt that is Atlas. That’s remarkable, and more than a little insane.

The challenge to Atlas lies in linking the stories, even though they often take place decades apart. And as the clip shows, the virtuosity of the filmmakers leads to a smooth, engaging feature film that most of you will embrace.

Beyond the promise of epic storytelling, on a grand scale, Cloud Atlas also boasts a remarkable cast, many of whom are called on to play various roles throughout the winding narrative. The film's website gave us an early taste of these transformations, and now the latest banners posit some of these characters in the lushly realized worlds they inhabit.

When it debuted at Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month, Cloud Atlas had half the critics loathing it, half of them adoring it-- and every single one of them talking about it. That's pretty much the best case scenario you can get for a movie trying to build up buzz, and maybe even better than universal praise.

The Toronto Film Festival technically doesn't wrap up until Sunday, when award winners will be announced (including the usually important Audience Award) and the crowds will recede from downtown Toronto for another year. But Team Cinema Blend has already left the premises, with dozens of movies and a handful interviews under our belts

This big, ambitious, gorgeous, glorious film demands that its audience walk in as open-hearted as it is; it's going to take you to some hippy-dippy, love-is-all-around-you places, and skeptics who choose to reject that will be in for a long two and a half hours. But directors Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer also make the choice to run along with it an easy one

The true lightning rod of discussion so far at TIFF has been Cloud Atlas (and not The Master, which many seem to admire but are hesitant to flat-out adore). The entire cast – and I do mean ENTIRE cast – took to the stage for a quick bow before the screening. Tom Hanks. Halle Berry. Hugh Grant. Hugo Weaving. Susan Sarandon. All of them. That was a sight.

For as many smart, complicated and slightly trippy movies likely to emerge in this high-class fall movie season, none are likely to be as tricky as Cloud Atlas, the adaptation of David Mitchell's celebrated novel that doesn't even fit into a simple plot description. Directors Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer are charged with telling six stories

Later this week what might be the most ambitious and truly spectacular film of the year will debut in Toronto. OK, that could really apply to a lot of the big fall movies premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival this week, but in particular I mean Cloud Atlas, the new film from Wachowski siblings Andy and Lana in collaboration with Tom Tykwer,

In Tom Tykwer and the Wachowski siblings' Cloud Atlas, actors are doing a lot more than just than just playing more than one character. Those who have seen the amazing extended first look know that the film's plot is set in multiple different timelines with different groups of characters, but what's special about the project is that the same group of actors playing all of the roles, no matter how strange.

I don't want to explain too much of it to you, since there are a lot of fun things to discover on your own, but it seemed worth pointing out a few of the neat things in the trailer you'd only notice if you knew what you were looking for. So first of all, here's the basic rundown of the six different stories

As you can probably tell, all of the stars of the film are playing multiple roles, and some are so transformed by makeup that it's hard to even recognize them. For example, that's almost definitely Halle Berry standing there with Jim Broadbent in one scene, playing the wife of a classical Belgian composer in the 1930s

Ever since I read Cloud Atlas earlier this year, and marveled at the complicated structure of a book that tells six different stories set across an entire millennium, I've been feverishly anticipating this movie, though fully aware that it could turn out to be a giant disaster. I still don't know quite what to make of it

Cloud Atlas, the damn-near-impossible to describe new film from Andy and Lana Wachowski (the folks behind The Matrix) and Tom Tykwer, has been kept in almost total secrecy for what seems like forever. Now we're getting a flurry of new information about the movie

As you might guess by the fact that the massive cast includes a lot of actors not featured here, these images come from just two of the six intertwined stories, which take place over the course of a millennium and range from science-fiction adventures to the old-fashioned tale of an American merchant traveling the South Pacific

Kicking things off will be Rian Johnson's Looper, the twisty time-travel thriller starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis, which will be the festival's opening film. Looper stole the show at Comic Con a few weeks ago, but the opening night spot at TIFF is a huge spotlight for what's essentially a genre movie from a director with only two other films behind him.

The upcoming feature already seemed to be stacked with wild cards when reports out of Cannes revealed the epic clocked in at a whopping 2 hours and 44 minutes! Such a long running time could frighten off many mainstream moviegoers, but with Warner Bros. scoring domestic distribution rights

Cloud Atlas, published in 2004, follows six stories that take places in various times in history, starting with an American notary on a ship traveling from the Pacific ISlands to San Francisco in the 19th century and ending far in the future, where modern society has collapsed and Hawaii is one of the last bastions of humanity

I decided to ask him about a few specific characters from the book that I thought he might be playing. Unfortunately I guessed wrong on a big one-- and I'll tell you after why it makes no sense the way they cast it-- but he did reveal one character Halle Berry will play, as well as a little more about the arduous makeup process the entire cast endured

Speaking on Cloud Atlas, Grant called it a "strange, ambitious film," and confessed he plays a total of six different characters in it. When pressed for details, he admitted fans may not recognize him, not only because these characters, which he describes as "incredibly evil," are the polar opposite of his usual typecasting, but also because of the extensive physical transformation each entailed...

The Wachowski siblings' Cloud Atlas may end up being a complete unmitigated disaster, but at least one thing we can count on is that it will be a visual spectacle. The directing duo hasn't helmed a critically successful movie since 2003, but for all their lacking, Speed Racer and the two Matrix sequels were a marvel to look at, and their adaptation of David Mitchell's novel shouldn't be much different.

The props are bizarre, though they’ll be familiar to anyone who tackled Mitchell’s book. The green Volkswagen Bug belongs to journalist Luisa Rey (played by Halle Berry). In the background, you can see a pair of Chatham Island totems, while the blue plane likely comes from a Korean-based dystopian future.

D'Arcy joins a cast that is already brimming with talent. Signed on for starring roles are Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Sturgess, Susan Sarandon, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw and Hugh Grant. The project is being co-written and co-directed by Tom Tykwer and Andy and Lana Wachowski. The film is split into six different storylines, with six different characters living in six different times and six different locations.

The adaptation of David Mitchell’s acclaimed novel Cloud Atlas has been getting a lot of press lately. Not just because it’s an award winning novel with a lot of fan attention, but because turning it into a movie will undoubtedly be one of the most ambitious endeavors undertaken by Hollywood in a long time. Covering six storylines that span a millenia will be no small task for director Tom Tykwer and producers Andy and Lana Wachowski